Thursday, June 26, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Kent's painting, "Smokestack on the Channel" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Kent's DPW Gallery page:

Orlando, Florida, USA. I started painting in 1972. I have always loved painting the natural world. I have had the incredible good fortune of painting and selling hundreds of paintings throughout my career. From NASA to Jimmy Buffet to The Mayo Clinic, I have participated through art as a way to express my love for the world God has given us to enjoy and protect.

The Award winning book "Art of the National Parks" is the most recent publication for me. Check it out at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, or any national book chain.

I have been challenged to create affordable paintings available to more people. Sketches, color studies, plein air, and small studio pieces. Special works of art, because the places they represent are special to me.

I hope you find that unique work of art that is perfect for your special place.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

When I was in 9th grade, my art teacher introduced me to oil paints. I painted a ship out on the ocean, copying another artist’s painting. The school purchased the piece ( I went back several years later and found it was still on the office wall). It was terrible. The cool thing about that is this: someone saw potential and encouraged me by buying that painting. It made a huge impact on a young kid who had an interest in art.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Kent's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Oh yeah. Until around 1991 or so, I had this really mercurial relationship with my passion for art, and the fundamental need to provide for my family, who I might add, were wonderfully supportive - especially my wife Cathy. I drove taxi, worked as a waiter (for about a week!), sold leases, painted houses, and eventually went to commercial art school and landed a job as an art director. Which was okay, but still not my true passion. Then, I had a great break when a leading art gallery took me on. Things changed, opportunities became more available, and I have been blessed with the capability to paint professionally now for about 20 years.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

Watercolor, acrylic, charcoal, and of course oil.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

I paint almost exclusively with oil paints now. I say almost, because I do from time to time use acrylic as an underpainting for an oil painting.

I’m sticking with oils. I find new ways to apply the principles of oil painting interesting, and consuming. Even though I have been painting with oils for 35 years, I still find new ways of exploiting what can be done with the medium almost every day.

Who or what inspires you most?

I hope without sounding too corny I can say the Lord inspires me the most. Humanly speaking, I have always been greatly influenced by the Hudson River School artists, especially Thomas Moran, Herman Herzog, and Albert Bierstadt. Among the living artists, are Joseph McGurl, and Don Demers.

What does procrastination look like for you?

I do not have a problem with procrastination when it comes to creating art, but in doing the things I need to do to keep moving along in marketing. I really have to force myself to be disciplined.

I think the process I have keeps me interested in the “next step”. I normally wake up thinking about what I started on the day before. I work on several pieces at the same time, and they are always at different stages. These might be small paintings like the ones I do for DPW, or huge paintings like commissions for places like hospitals, NASA, Government Buildings, or medium sized paintings for galleries. If one doesn’t just grab me today, there is always another one that does. I guess you could call that a technique.

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

Those ideas come from several sources. Painting outside, sketching, studying previous paintings, taking a day or sometimes a week to photograph regions, even noticing a scene from a movie, and sometimes just starting from scratch, and letting my imagination create a landscape.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I like that question, because I never think in those terms. The idea of keeping art “fresh” can be taken two ways. Fresh for the observer, or fresh for me?

So.. fresh for me. When you look at my landscapes you will immediately notice I paint a wide variety of places. Every place, every region has it’s own special light, sky, colors, flora, even earth, that to it are innate. That keeps me keenly aware of what I am painting. In fact when I paint Ireland for instance, I am back there while I am painting. People take so many pictures while on vacation in order to remember the places they enjoy. Artists take in more than the casual observer, so there is a wonderful sense of “being” when we recount those places while painting them. That keeps me pretty astonished.

Fresh for the observer? I am not sure how to address that, since many people may be seeing a painting - at an event, online, gallery, or whatever- I finished a week, a month, or even a year ago. I hope they have the sense of unique, awesome, fresh that I had at the time of painting it.

I am learning more about what I allow the viewer to fill in. I have the tendency to paint too much. It is a lesson that requires me to intentionally not place detail where it is more distracting than helpful. I am also employing a technique of “shape welding” in the early composition of a painting. Keith Bond shared this in a recent blog article. It is a very efficient way to see the value shapes - the abstract pattern under all the color and detail.

What makes you happiest about your art?

Several years ago I was commissioned to do three paintings for the Mayo Clinic. They were a marshy, calm, triptych. A couple of years later I was contacted by a woman from South America whose father was at the Mayo Clinic, and eventually lost his battle there, and died.

She told me she and her two sisters spent hours in the room where my paintings were, and that the healing calm of those paintings was a comfort to them during this difficult time. She asked if I could do three small paintings like the ones at Mayo so that they could have one in each of their homes.

I am always happy to get a new big commission, but I experienced more joy in that little commission than any other painting I have ever done.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Dorothy's painting, "I Can See My House From Here" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Dorothy's DPW Gallery page:

I just love using color to describe this beautiful and interesting world! Art has been part of my life forever. Every where I go I see the landscape as a "painting" and analyze how I would interpret the scene. I have worked in colored pencil, watercolor, pastel, and I'm currently enjoying acrylics on canvas, specializing in landscapes and animals. My view of the world is somewhat whimsical, and I hope it brings a smile. :)

You can follow me on Facebook by looking for Dorothy Jenson Art.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I started by drawing! I scribbled and doodled on everything as a child. One of my grade school teachers actually wrote “Dorothy spends too much time drawing” on a report card home to my parents. I may have been a tiny bit of a distraction when I was drawing cartoonish caricatures of the kids in my class in 4th grade and they often gathered around my desk to see the latest creations.

My family often went to the Oregon coast to play, and my favorite thing to do was drag a stick through the wet sand to draw very large imaginative creatures that all who passed by would stop and admire. It really wasn’t until high school that I experimented with a paintbrush, much to my mother’s dismay. My medium then was acrylic and somehow there were always little spots of it ending up on my clothing. For good, of course! (My Mom is now one of my best fans!)

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Dorothy's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

The story of my life! Even though I have always loved art, it has often taken a backseat to the important career of raising my five children and adventuring with my husband. We love road trips, camping, hiking, and canoeing and our summers are full! Now my own five kids have grown and married, but there are 13 grandchildren to spend time with. On top of that we are very active in our Church community.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I’ve been all over the place with my artistic expression! Through it all I have been largely self taught. I took a few community classes, but mostly explored each medium by reading everything printed about the subject that I could find, and then experimenting on my own when I could.

For years I enjoyed watercolor, then moved on to colored pencil. When rock painting was popular, I scoured river banks for perfectly shaped “canvases” and created wonderful curled up animals in acrylic that I sold in local bazaars. It was a lot of fun, but the weight of the rocks began bothering my wrists, so it was time to move on.

My next obsession was with pastels. So many beautiful colors, and it’s a very satisfying “hands on” kind of creativity, but having to frame everything for protection has sent me in another direction to do works of acrylic that can be hung, as is, on the wall without framing. I’m also playing around a bit with ink and watercolor again. We have lots of camping coming up this summer and I just purchased a tiny little watercolor kit that is going to come along on my adventures.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

I don’t know the answer to that one yet! Everything I have done has been a pleasure, and I know I will still be bouncing back and forth between new mediums and old favorites in the years to come.

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I haven’t tried oils yet, and I wonder if it might be nice to have paint on my palette that doesn’t dry out so quickly. On the other hand, I might get impatient waiting for my work to dry!

Studying the work of other artists! Seeing the interesting and beautiful works of other artists really fires up my desire to be creative myself.

What does procrastination look like for you?

The computer, thinking about art, household work and errands, thinking about art, spending time with family in person or chatting on the phone, thinking about art, crocheting thread snowflakes, reading, all the while thinking about the art I ought to be working on!

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I will admit, I haven’t mastered that discipline yet. My best times to create are in the middle of the day, when there are fewer distractions. I try to paint every day, but it doesn’t always happen. Still working on this!

Everywhere I go, I see potential paintings in the community and landscape. I carry around a small point and shoot camera to gather references, plus I look through references on the Paint My Photo website. During my procrastination time, when I’m thinking about art, generally one or two references will stand out in my mind and I know that’s what I’ll be working on next.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

Being willing to change my mind and bounce around between mediums and techniques! I’ve had many people comment on how much they enjoy my “style”, but inwardly I know that it is subject to change!

For instance, lately my work is sprinkled with lots of little dots, and I can’t explain why other than it just keeps happening. For now... in a few months, maybe not. I am enjoying painting funny little animals, but sometimes I feel like a landscape or two. In the last week I’ve also played with ink lines and watercolor.

It took me a long time to feel like my art was marketable. I was a DPW lurker for a couple of years, admiring and learning from the amazing artists that posted every day, until one day I realized that I could do the same thing, and I signed up! That was a turning point for me, and still is.

I’m stepping out of my comfort zone, posting regularly on a blog and Facebook page, as well as doing some outdoor art shows. With each painting I do, the medium itself teaches me what works and what doesn’t, while at the same time I see a little more of my own true nature in the finished pieces. I’m a work in progress, but now I’m not so afraid to let others share the ride with me as I continue to learn and grow as an artist.

What makes you happiest about your art?

I enjoy painting things that are beautiful and uplifting. It could be a landscape, or an amusing critter, but I always try to bring in a feeling of light-heartedness and joy about the world we live in. I’m happiest when people tell me that my work makes them smile, and then I feel like I’ve made a small difference for good in the life of that person. Knowing that my artwork has the capacity to lighten the heart of my viewers is the best feeling of all.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Joy's painting, "First Spring Iris" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Joy's DPW Gallery page:

Joy was born in Bordeaux, France. She began her formal training in earnest in 1966 when she attended Tyler College of Art while still a high school student. Immediately upon graduation from high school, she enrolled as a full time student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. There she studied under such notables as Will Barnett and Robert Beverly Hale. She has created a sensitive style truly her own.

As a master of the nearly lost art of fine drawing, she captures the essence of her subjects with a deft hand. Joy is accomplished in all media and all types of subject matter. In addition to creating individual pieces, Joy designed and executed theater stage sets in the New York Metropolitan area for eight years.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

My first painting lessons were a thirteenth birthday present. It was an adult class and the instructor just sat there and puffed on a pipe. A few months later I was enrolled in a drawing class with an excellent instructor who taught the Kimon Nicolaide's method, "The Natural Way to Draw." With a strong drawing foundation, I received a scholarship to a teen painting class at the Philadelphia's College of Art with a great teacher using the Cape School method. I then went on to college class of drawing at Tyler School of Art when I was sixteen. Then after high school, I went on to 5 years at the Pennsylvanian Academy of Fine Arts where I painted every day.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Joy's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

After art school, for a year I became the director of an art center where the demand of the job left me little time to paint. Later, I married and we moved to a new place; it took me a few months to find a place in time and space to paint and draw. After my second son was born and we moved across country, I took time off to be a full time mother of two. After about two years, my husband encouraged me to go back to my art.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

Soon after art school, I started teaching ceramics and selling ceramics in galleries around Philadelphia and in New Jersey. The pots I made had figures and faces on them. I also designed and painted scenery sets for almost nine years. Painting large and loose was a great exercise for me. When my children were small, I tried watercolor, gouache, pastels, and colored pencils. Anything that was fast to set out and easy to clean up. I hadn't painted many landscapes until we moved to the Northwest. I went out on my own to paint until I found groups that did that also.

My sons were in highschool before I went back to oils full time. I don't want to paint with any other medium. I love painting in oils. But, once in a while someone will ask me to give a watercolor class, so I pull them out and start to use them again. A wise decision was to not spread myself too thin. So I haven't touched ceramics in years, and I will never will go back to scenery painting.

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

A love a challenge. I find painting outside with oils a challenge. How fast I can paint the changing light, the sea colors, the cloud formations. How fast I can paint this man mending his fishing net. So I have to say, I have plenty of exploration still to do with just painting with oils.

Who or what inspires you most?

I'm inspired when I see fine paintings by artist in books and museums like John Singer Sargent, or paintings by the impressionist and others. I am inspired by looking a local art as well. Tapes and books by contemporary artists like Richard Schmid are inspiring. Driving around our local farm area, the sea, and the mountain inspires me. Sometimes a walk through my garden inspires me. I find beautiful music inspiring. When I see a person that I know will make a fantastic subject to paint, I bravely approach them to see if they will model for me.

From experience I find it easier to do something that I may think is hard, then to think and fret about doing it. Getting it done and freeing myself allows me to go on to the next thing that needs to be done.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

When the boys were in school, I went out to groups where we would hire models to draw and paint on a set day and time each week. I still go out to paint and draw models in a group setting. I took over our breakfast room by the kitchen where I could paint until the boys walked in the door. Now I have a studio/carriage house on our lot where I go every afternoon to paint. Putting on my painting clothes and classical music transitions me into painting time.

I arrive at ideas for paintings by looking over photos that I've taken over the years. A composition or subject will pop out at me. If there is a Gallery Show with a theme, I work on that theme for a while. Sometimes looking through art books will give me an idea. It could also be a flower from my garden or a neighbor's cat or car. I am also part of a critique group where we suggest constructive criticism and share ideas.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I recently read on Daily Paintworks that someone had challenged themselves to do thirty-five brush stokes to a painting. I thought that was a great idea and a way to not overwork a painting or put unnecessary brush strokes on a painting. I haven't tried it yet but I will. I think to keep art fresh you have to know when to stop. Finding balance in my life keeps me from burnout. For me, I need family and friends time, fresh air and exercise. I also find time to do volunteer work. It's good for me to think about what others may need and help out. The area where I live has a strong, supportive art community as well.

Right now, I'm studying color. It is easier for me to look at my older art work and see what I have learned since that piece was made, than to look at my art work today and say this is what I'm learning right now.

What makes you happiest about your art?

When I see someone look at my art and fall in love with it, or see how happy someone is about the work I've made. I'm happy to see my art bring joy into someone's life. I am also happy when my painting or drawing flows out of me with ease and just seems right and complete.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Nicoletta's painting, "My Little Bird" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Nicoletta's DPW Gallery page:

I have had a full time studio practice for over thirty years, both painting and teaching drawing, watercolour and acrylic. My work has been exhibited in an extensive assortment of exhibitions and has garnered many awards to date. My work has evolved from photo realism to pure abstraction with the underlying pursuit of understanding perception. (click to read more)

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

As a child, my entire household was always in a state of making something. My Father, an architect, taught us to draw very early, and my Mother was the most able person I know, capable of making anything. We spent our long northern winters making crafts for the church bazaar, clothes for ourselves and our stuffed toys, Christmas decorations for the house, the list is endless. Pursuing an education in art was a natural evolution.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Nicoletta's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

A few. I always kept painting, but in lesser volume. After university, for about four years I deviated from painting to learn and practice gold smithing. I have also run the office for a commercial company for about four years. I find I use much of what I learned about business from both experiences in my art practice and am thankful for the skills.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

Hmm. I have foundations in fabric art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, wood carving, ceramics, design and the gold smithing. However, I would say my 'serious work' stems from my early love for complex graphite works composed of sixty hours or more of work. This activity morphed into painting in dry-brush watercolour over a period of about twenty years.

In 2002, I began working with acrylics and now, just this year, I am wrestling my way through oil. My overriding genre is realism, however, it is the concept of 'what is real' rather than the appearance of real which is at the heart of my investigations. I am supremely interested in the processes of perception, from how the senses work, to the brain functions, to making meaning, to the construction of visual and verbal languages, to communication and apprehension.

All have 'stuck'. Each medium has unique properties that are best suited to express particular ideas, sensations, expressions. Nothing makes a mark as beautifully as graphite or ink. Watercolour is supreme at interpreting the luminous colour and depth of nature's surfaces. Acrylic is amazing at keeping it's consistency over large areas. Oil seems to be handy because of the duality of it's transparent and opaque pigments at creating depth in addition to revealing brushstrokes.

Add in the cultural and historical applications of the mediums and you have a whole other layer of meaning. For example fabric is intertwined with women's history while photography speaks intimately of time and place and photographers viewpoint. Each medium carries with it's own story and associations.

Which ones are you looking forward to exploring?

I would like to learn glass blowing. To have light, transparency, colour and form to play with! The ability to create, essentially on three different levels, the outer form, the inner form and then the whole! I imagine the potential for creating metaphorical meanings to be limitless with that many possibilities.

Nature is overwhelmingly the most enduring reservoir of delight and wonder for the senses. She brings our senses to life. In humans, I could list an entire army of amazing 'mensch': artists, poets, philosophers, activists, leaders, housewives, workers, teenagers, small children. It is truest to say that I am inspired and awed by the moments when you are witness to a humans exercising their humanness; to be vulnerable and trusting, to acknowledge ignorance and be open to explore and question, to share and to receive, to love and be loved.

What does procrastination look like for you?

I prefer to call procrastination, cleaning up the small stuff so that the big stuff can happen. There is a lesson to be learned from the farmers who allow fields to lie fallow so that they can be refreshed for the following year of planting, we too need to leave space in our schedules. In fallow periods I do the 'winter work'; clean the studio, house and garden, answer neglected phone calls, tend to avoided business, pet the cats, gaze at the flowers and -- PRESTO! I am unencumbered and ready to go again.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I awarded art making the status of a regular job. My hours are from 9:30 to 5, 6, 7 or 8. Everything else is arranged around the studio hours. Phone and emails are handled before 9:00, at lunch, or in the evening after the studio. Dishes are done at the end of the day. Teaching and social things are slotted in after work, or on rare occasions after 3:00. My best hours are in the morning, so I truly try to hold the 9am to 1pm slot inviolate.

As my work stems from questions about perception, all ideas are part of this continual theme. Each painting stems from the one before. There never is a shortage of ideas, just time. Whenever I am learning a new medium however, like this years pursuit of oil painting, I will fall back on observing nature. One always finds something new to learn in natural objects.

How do you keep art "fresh?"

Hmm. That is the question. Do we? Can we escape our own shadows? Studying historical artists and also myself, I see that we all tend to repeat ideas and themes that are set early in life. I suspect that our 'lens', the way we view our world, is set very early on and all else is just a permeation of the values, ethics and interests that are set in that early experience.

What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?
It has been invaluable to understand myself and to develop compassion for my weaknesses. All work cannot be amazing, however all work is a part of your journey somewhere. I have some catch phrases for the moments of doubt, the moments when you realize your boat is in an eddy. Try to fail spectacularly! Play is vital. Aim for authenticity. Feel first, sort it out later.

Most of my thinking these days is about how to support ART in our society. I am certain of the value it has had to my life and to those around me and I would like to do something to spread that around. I believe that our senses awaken us to being alive, they literally connect us to our world, natural and manmade. Music, dance, theatre, and visual art stimulate those same senses and provide information on who we are and what we are capable of.

This is vitally important as our technological world is exponentially increasing both the complexity and the speed in which that complexity is being launched at us. We suffer daily losses of entire cultures and languages which translate to massive loss of the diversity of responses to the environment which we once had. We also incur an accelerated divorce from the understanding of the natural world in which those cultures developed. Creativity is possibly the best tool that a human has to apprehend and respond to her/his environment. It is vital to our wellbeing.